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First call projects approved

Interreg Europe monitoring committee has conditionally approved 64 projects out of 261 applications received in the first call for proposals.

IMPORTANT! The lead partners of the projects approved under conditions will shortly be notified directly with details on the conditions to fulfil and information on the next steps to start their project. We kindly ask applicants not to contact the secretariat directly until they have received this notification.

Have a look at the projects approved in the first call for proposals. Or download a list of them.

The project addresses the inadequacies in the design and implementation of innovation policies which may negatively impact the effectiveness of Structural Funds. RIS3 are expected to provide a relevant solution to this issue, but their quality is entirely based on the efficient understanding and implementation of the entrepreneurial discovery process. The project aims at professionalising the management of this process.

The overall objective of the project is to improve the RIS3 implementation governance and the delivery of Structural Funds, benefit from policy learning and enhance industry-led centres of competence as RIS3 implementation units. The industry-led focus is bioeconomy, an industry common to the project partners’ RIS3.

CLUSTERS3

New Models of Innovation for Strategic Cluster PartnershipsLead partner: SPRI - Society for Competitive Transformation (Business Development Agency of the Basque Government), Spain

Cluster organisations are major facilitators for cooperation among SMEs. The goal of the project is to improve cluster policies and the performance of cluster organisations, having in mind their important role in the insertion of SMEs in global value chains and in leveraging the successful implementation of RIS3.

CLUSTERIX 2.0

Leveraging Cluster Policies for successful implementation of RIS3Lead partner: ecoplus. The Business Agency of Lower Austria

The project aims at improving policy instruments related to the actual delivery of innovation, making a better use of clusters to facilitate such processes by focusing on complementary competences, by introducing new models of innovation for the development and operational implementation of strategic cluster partnerships.

High-speed broadband infrastructure carries high economic and social potential. It is to be fully exploited through new services designed to meet public, private and community needs and justify the public investment in it. To achieve this, the project will undertake the design of such new services supported by open innovation processes involving and empowering businesses, citizens and public administrations, as well as stimulating demand and local innovation capacity potential.

The project's objective is to increase the efficiency of public funding dedicated to health innovation. For this, regions need to know which are the weak ingredients of their innovation system and how to strengthen them to result in a large scale, accessible, attractive, connected and sustainable experimental landscape, also harnessing the potentials of living labs, which increase chances of health innovations to become commercially successful.

HIGHER

Better Policy Instruments for High Innovation Projects in the European RegionsLead partner: UAB Research Park, Spain

The project's objective is to boost the delivery of home care innovative solutions in regional innovation chains by strengthening cooperation among actors in the regional innovation system using quadruple-helix approach.

The project aims at improving innovation delivery capacity of participating regions: the main goal is to mainstream, into the different regional strategies of partners, policies and tools to increase the capacities of the various innovation ecosystems, reinforce the collaboration between research and business communities and exploit the economic valorisation processes of research results.

InnoBridge

Bridging the innovation gap through converting R&D results into commercial success in a more effective and efficient wayLead partner: Office of the Regional Government of Lower Austria

Increasing SME competitiveness is at the core of the project. Improving the innovation bridge and related policy instruments for SMEs, that is bridging the innovation gap through converting R&D results into commercial success in a more effective and efficient way, will enable SMEs to realise their innovation potential better and act as a catalyst for creating more high qualified jobs and regional growth.

NICHE

Building innovative food value chains in regionsLead partner: Regional Development Agency of the West Region (West RDA), Romania

The project intends to increase the adoption of research and innovation solutions by food sector companies through the improvement of existing policies in the partner regions where food has been identified as a high-potential sector for their smart growth. The project will bring together all the relevant actors to facilitate technology and knowledge exchange that will be translated into new products and services.

NMP-REG

Delivering NMP to REGional manufacturingLead partner: Agency for the development of the Empolese Valdelsa, Italy

Nano-technologies and new materials (NMP) are a cornerstone of EU policy for innovation and advanced manufacturing. A common challenge is to ensure that innovation actors cooperate in delivering research results to the manufacturing sector. The project partners want to face this challenge together. Their overall objective is to improve regional policies for delivery of innovation in NMP to manufacturing.

The project aims at improving design, rapid delivery and implementation of open and social innovation policies and action plans through co-creative regional ecosystems for innovation, inspired by the lead partner co-creative cyclic good practice, the Innovation Loop. Policymakers’ innovation management skills and co-creativity will be accelerated by interregional collaboration in focused sectors and disciplines, adopting the penta-helix model (government-research-business-citizens-society).

The project applies interregional policy learning and exchange of experience on important aspects influencing the regional innovation ecosystems in the field of advanced materials. One of the concrete aims is to improve policy instruments supporting innovation ecosystem of advanced materials by supporting RTD projects, cooperation between science and industry, and creation of infrastructures, and by mobilising actors to improve innovation ecosystems, networks and processes.

The project aims to identify the innovative potential of rural SMEs and help them grow and expand their activities through learning about how to implement and manage innovation. This must be done by creating effective exchange of experience in supporting cluster cooperation and international alliances, networks and clusters.

RESET

RESearch centers of Excellence in the Textile sectorLead partner: Municipality of Prato, Italy

The overall objective of the project is to generate a policy change in the implementation of regional policies and programmes of the Structural Funds related to the strengthening of research, technological development and innovation to ensure the sustainability of the textile and clothing sector of the partner regions. It will be achieved through policy learning and capacity building activities on public policies supporting innovative, green and sustainable textile and clothing production and processes.

The main objective of the project is to develop and improve existing regional policy instruments to facilitate industrial innovation-related interregional collaboration, which in turn will support the renewal of Europe’s industry and competitiveness.

The promotion of innovation in chemical related areas is an important objective of the partner regions, which have highlighted these topics in their RIS as basis for ERDF innovation funding from 2014 until 2020. The project wants to improve the implementation of RIS with focus on chemical related topics with the help of interregional exchange of experience and mutual learning between public authorities from seven European chemical regions.

SmartPilots

Improving policies in support of shared pilot facilities to increase their impact on the Key Enabling Technology Industrial Biotech and the European Bio-economyLead partner: Bio Base Europe Pilot Plant, Belgium

The project's objective is to improve regional policies in support of shared pilot facilities to increase their impact on the Key Enabling technology (KET) Industrial Biotech and the bio-economy. Shared pilot facilities are open access test sites that bring bio- economy innovations from the laboratory into industrial practice.

The project aims to improve SME uptake of environmentally sustainable innovations into their business. The partners will address the gap in the mid-level regional support for environmentally driven business development of SMEs with a learning approach that clearly focuses on the needs of SMEs and that involves a close interaction between the public actors, the private actors, academia and SMEs.

TITTAN

Network for Technology, Innovation and Translation in AgeingLead partner: The Public Health Authority of Galicia (PHAGa), Spain

European population is ageing rapidly. The project aims at that challenge by improving the quality and performance of the European regional healthcare systems in relation to healthy and active ageing. Its specific objective is to exchange, benchmark and implement good practices and measures in the partner regions which can foster the design, up-take and use of innovative technology-based products and solutions.

ATM for SMEs

Access to Microfinance for Small and Medium-sized EnterprisesLead partner: Fejér Enterprise Agency, Hungary

The lack of access to credit and financial exclusion can be a serious obstacle to business creation in many European regions. The project aims at improving the access to microfinance in the participating regions by sharing and exchanging the local knowledge on innovative solutions.

iEER

Boost the Young by Enabling Entrepreneurship in RegionsLead partner: Helsinki-Uusimaa Regional Council, Finland

The project's aim is to cultivate young entrepreneurs within and between the regions to become the crop of Europe’s future. The project will define the paths and solutions for partner regions enabling higher education institutions and the other quadruple helix actors to be a part of thriving entrepreneurship ecosystem supporting young entrepreneurs.

The project's aim is to support creation and development of new SMEs in the cultural and creative industries (CCI) sector at regional and national level through fruitful cooperation among regions with different capacities and experience in CCI support policies.

The project tackles SME internationalisation, a key issue for SME growth at global scale that still presents weaknesses, mainly due to high investments required and uncertainty of their effectiveness. The partners intend to improve regional policies on internationalisation with a new approach supporting EU SME engagement in international markets.

Policies aiming at supporting SMEs lack some effectiveness and efficiency in the tourism sector in many European regions. The project's aim is to improve public policies dedicated to the support of tourist SMEs and their competitiveness through the creation of a management strategy of the territory, i.e. a destination management strategy.

The project addresses the issue of insufficient impact and efficiency of policies aiming at enhancing SMEs competitiveness, especially their growth on national and international markets as well as their engagement in innovation processes. The project will work on aligning support services into efficient portfolios designed as policy mixes, finding synergies among different services and targeting specific support at appropriate segments of SME population.

Rural economy SMEs face challenges in adopting innovation to increase their competitiveness. The project will play an important role in supporting the modernisation of existing rural SMEs and the proliferation of innovative start-ups. It will improve the capacity of managing and regional authorities to implement policies that promote the adoption of technology and business model innovations by rural SMEs.

The project focuses on the role of public authorities in creating internationalisation services to support the competitiveness of regional economies. It builds on research findings and highlights the importance of regional quadruple helix partnerships in research and design of new internationalisation policy models.

PURE COSMOS

PUblic authorities Role Enhancing COmpetitiveness of SMeSLead partner: Municipality of Genoa, Italy

The project brings together two of the big challenges facing the EU: the need to stimulate and support SMEs and the need to reduce the weight of public administration. It intends to improve the effectiveness of public support for entrepreneurs, particularly the young, by cutting costs and improving quality through innovative new projects such as on e-payment tools and by improving governance through simplification.

RuralGrowth

RuralGrowth - increasing competitiveness of SMEs in the rural visitor economy sectorLead partner: Local Government of Nagykanizsa, Hungary

The project aims at improving policies related to SME development through fostering the uptake of green innovative solutions as a means for boosting rural economies. It intends to stimulate SME innovation support schemes and efficient capacity development for the private players of rural visitor economies.

Internationalisation is a key way for SMEs to innovate and grow. The project partners are keen to respond to the challenge of increasing SME internationalisation capacity. They each have SME internationalisation policies to share and improve and they wish to learn from a variety of different approaches about the best ways that policies can be designed to encourage and support SMEs into international markets.

SKILLS+

Supporting knowledge capacity in ICT among SME to engage in growth and innovationLead partner: Ministry for Regional Development and Transport of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany

The overall project's objective is to enhance the competitiveness of rural SMEs by promoting the uptake and integration of modern ICT tools in daily business routines. Its aim is to optimise existing policy instruments and either give more priority to the specific needs in rural areas or propose complimentary measures to increase the share of available funding for rural areas in order to overcome the digital gap between urban agglomerations and the periphery.

The overall objective of the project is to enhance the competitiveness and sustainability of SMEs in the organic sector, improving their performance and the growth capacity of the entire organic regional sector in regional, national and international markets.

SOCIAL-SEEDS

Exploiting Potentials of Social Enterprises through Standardized European Evaluation and Development SystemLead partner: IFKA Public Benefit Non-Profit Ltd. for the Development of the Industry, Hungary

The project intends to equip policymakers with an evidence-based policy diagnostic tool that will help them increase the effectiveness of local and regional policies stimulating growth and employment in social enterprises and their ecosystems in European cities and regions.

SPEED UP

Supporting Practices for Entrepreneurship Ecosystems in the Development of Urban PoliciesLead partner: Municipality of Florence, Italy

The overall objective of the project is to trigger policy change in the partner regions improving the implementation of the policy instruments dedicated to support of entrepreneurship, in particular business incubation enabling the creation of new companies.

TRINNO

Business ecosystem for TRadition and INNOvationLead partner: Arezzo Innovation, Italy

The overall objective of the project is to promote competitiveness in EU regions through improving policy instruments for business support systems that focus on applying digital innovation in the local economy.

The project focuses on SME representation in export activities. The partners intend to improve their internationalisation policy tools in order to increase SME ability to export, as it is an essential element of gaining new know-how and improving competitiveness.

The project aims to improve regional and national policy processes and policy implementation and delivery addressing the transition to a low carbon economy, in relation to renewable energy use, energy efficiency of buildings, and forest and agricultural biomass.

The project will contribute to achieving the EU energy goals with its overall objective to increase the energy rehabilitation of buildings and pave the way towards the new standard of nearly zero-energy buildings.

The project's vision is to promote innovative ways to reduce carbon footprint and increase the sustainability of urban areas by improving the efficiency in the use of urban transport infrastructure through ICT in the context of increasing availability of sensor technology to monitor and record large amounts of data.

The overall objective of the project is to promote new or improve existing policies aimed at the creation of funding instruments, especially financial instruments (FIs) supported by ERDF funds and integrated with EC funding initiatives and also from public-private partnerships.

LAST MILE

Sustainable mobility for the last mile in tourism regionsLead partner: Environment Agency Austria

The project intends to develop through an interregional exchange a sound basis for the implementation of sustainable demand-responsive transport systems. The partners will look at the ways to cover the 'last mile' in the travel chain of tourists and provide an alternative to car use for the inhabitants.

The overall project's objective is to improve policy instruments targeting demand-driven initiatives to increase energy efficiency related to buildings. This is to be achieved by finding innovative ways for regional and local authorities to encourage energy consumers’ behaviour change.

Straits of Europe are at the heart of maritime border regions. As important passage points, they concentrate flows and activities, resulting in an important carbon pressure. The objective of this project is to increase the consideration for the cross-cutting low-carbon challenge within five maritime border areas, looking in particular at the way cross-border cooperation is managed and integrating specific consideration for the low-carbon challenge within the different priorities of each cooperation programme.

The project focuses on the issue of housing deprivation and energy efficiency in the social housing sector. Its aim is to improve regional policy instruments targeting the link between social housing sector and fuel poverty with green building interventions considering policy, institutional, financial and technical levels.

Buildings are among the main sectors identified as being responsible for Europe’s emissions. The objective of the project is to improve the capacity of public authorities to undertake efficient renovation works of their public building stock, saving energy and public resources.

The project addresses the need to increase the use of sustainable transport modes by promoting intermodality, technical innovation and the use of cleaner and more efficient systems. The project partners expect to contribute to the consolidation of sustainable mobility in their regions by improving their policies' performance as a result of a mutual learning process.

RESOLVE

Sustainable mobility and the transition to a low-carbon retailing economyLead partner: City of Roermond, Netherlands

The project’s objective is to reduce carbon emissions created by retail related traffic in town and city centres while also supporting jobs and growth in the local retail economy. The partners will improve regional policies through innovative new projects and by improving governance so that the different stakeholders can agree on common solutions.

The project's overall goal is to improve energy performance of the partner regions thanks to enhanced policies on smart grids. It intends to identify efficient energy management tools, with a specific focus on three main challenges to smart grid deployment: empowering consumers, economic and business models, and investment possibilities for smart network infrastructure.

SMART-MR

Sustainable Measures for Achieving Resilient Transportation in Metropolitan RegionsLead partner: Scientific Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Slovenia

The overall objective of the project is to support local and regional authorities in improving transport policies and providing sustainable measures for achieving resilient low-carbon transportation and mobility in metropolitan regions.

The project is designed to strengthen the urban dimension of regional and local policy making, contributing to the implementation of EU Transport White Paper, Urban Agenda and the EU 2020 strategy and facilitating the shift to low carbon economy. The project contributes to the development of a competitive, resource-efficient and low-carbon oriented European transport system.

The project focuses on the energy performances of buildings. It intends to design state-of-the-art policies promoting near zero CO2 emission buildings due to energy use at the local, regional and national level, present various financial tools in order to promote these types of buildings, and work on the combination of different technologies and energy efficiency sources, which can be used in order to achieve the EU energy efficiency targets for 2020.

Fitting conservation priorities with the regional development policies while paying special attention to the available ERDF funds is a critical challenge. It requires consistent, relevant and structured biodiversity information fed to and eventually guiding the decision making. The project aims at enhancing the natural value through improved regional development policies by creating and reinforcing the link between relevant biodiversity data and conservation decision-making processes.

Digitisation is an innovative approach the application of which can address a large part of the visible problems in the management of natural and cultural heritage. The main project objective is to improve adoption of the digitisation policy for natural and cultural heritage and to prepare the implementation of best practices into the participating regions, according to their needs. The main outcomes of the project implementation will be regional strategies and plans for better organisation of the management and exploitation of natural and cultural heritage.

CESME

Circular Economy for SMEsLead partner: Business Development Centre North Denmark

The project will examine through interregional meetings identifying good practices how best regional and local authorities and business development agencies can improve relevant policy instruments and design support packages to assist SMEs in entering the circular economy.

The project objective is to protect and preserve natural and cultural heritage assets and deploy them for the development and promotion of innovative, sustainable and responsible tourism strategies, including intangible and industrial heritage, through interpretation and digitisation, with capitalisation of good practices, policy learning, policy implementation and capacity building.

Cultural heritage of maritime and fluvial regions forms an essential part of coastal landscape. This heritage is particularly vulnerable to spatial changes due to transport, industrialisation and growing use of coastal zones for tourism. This project intends to improve regional policies for heritage management in these regions and achieve a better balance between exploitation and preservation measures when redeveloping coastal landscapes.

IMPACT

Innovative Models for Protected Areas: exChange and TransferLead partner: Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning, Regional Government of Andalucía, Spain

New management models to balance preservation and exploitation of protected areas (Natura 2000) has become a priority in most EU regions. The project's aim is to gain through interregional learning a better understanding of the patterns followed, development potential and opportunities to change policies related to the management of protected areas.

The aim of the project is to exchange experience and policies for efficient and sustainable management of municipal waste in European heritage cities, where the preservation of heritage and the management of significant amounts of waste due to high tourist and economic activity present a specific challenge.

The project addresses the EU challenge of transitioning towards a circular economy. Its main goal is to promote the adoption of systemic design approach to productive systems in which waste from one productive process becomes input in another, preventing waste being released into the environment.

The waterway regions involved in the project share unique natural and cultural heritage: protected areas with rich biodiversity and historic cities and buildings connected to water. The project aims at achieving a better balance between protection and sustainable exploitation of the valuable natural and cultural resources through improving the development programmes and policies of the partner regions.

The project intends to diffuse industrial symbiosis and align regional policies with the circular economy package of the European Commission. Its aim is to support the transition towards a resource-efficient economy through the establishment of territorial synergies to manage waste and exchange energy and by-products as secondary raw resources.

The challenge the project addresses is a systemic uptake of industrial symbiosis in European regions, a means to sustainable growth increasing SMEs competitiveness and resilience and preventing industrial waste production.